Greetings from hospital room 305 in Portland!
We are proud to announce that we have survived two weeks of strict hospital bed rest! The doctors (GD Dr. and Dr. Cuddly) have said i am critical but stable, meaning my cervix is still open so gravity is not currently my friend and i am at much greater risk for infection, but i am not having increased contractions or further dilation, and my membranes are still intact, both of which are good things. Dr. C remains cautiously optimistic and GD Dr. says, "well, you've defied the odds so far..." Again, we are going with Dr. C!
We have three more weeks till we make it to viability (for those of you keeping score at home, Sat is our turn day, so today, Sun July 20th, we are 23 weeks and 1 day). that is the first goal, and we plan to make it way beyond that. And, along those lines, we cant thank you all enough for all the messages of concern, prayers, well wishes, positive inspiration, jokes, stories from your daily life, pictures, stories of other bed rest successes, cards, and good vibes. You guys are keeping these babies healthy just as much as us with all your support. Please know how grateful Bruno and I are from the bottom of our beings.
A bunch of you have asked me what exactly "strict bed rest" means. Let me explain: it means lying flat in bed all the time, with the exception of my bedside commode privileges, for which i may sit up, briefly. I dream of the day i can pee behind a closed door again! How do I eat?, you may ask: lying down! First two culinary lessons for surviving bed rest: 1) stop ordering soup from the hospital menu (disastrous!) and 2) a long bendy straw is your best friend! Lesson three involves strategically placed towels.
"But surely you can sit up to read, or prop yourself up on pillows to watch TV, and how are you writing this now?", I hear you cry! Nope, no sitting, no propping, and here is the visual of me right now: I'm lying on my right side, pillows supporting my head, arm and gigantor belly. The computer is slid into me on an ingenious TV tray bruno purchased from bed bath and beyond, and I'm pecking stuff out with my left hand until my arm runs out of blood, at which point i roll onto my back, shake out my arm and dream of voice activated software. (we are currently investigating those possibilities)
Now let me describe our room: Bruno is nesting, and has so far added to our room (birth suite #5): a drain rack (filled with various dishes borrowed from the hospital plus a wine glass and coffee mug for Bruno; try the imagine my coffee snob of a husband's dismay at the fact that i now sip my morning coffee through a straw out of a plastic hospital cup with a lid!), a coffee grinder, a coffee maker, a toaster, two TV trays (one to hold his laptop, one to hold mine), a hand held blender stick (hence the flax smoothies), a small printer (i'm not kidding, folks) a pantry full of health food, ranging from omega three rich walnuts (omega three's build baby brains!) to the dreaded flax seed and wheat germ to a bar of dark chocolate i know he's got stashed in there somewhere. For decoration, we've been hanging all the cards and poems you glorious people are sending (mounted of course on colorful paper: thanks mom!), fruit basket on top of the TV cabinet, flowers in the windows, balloons on the push pin board, obama '08 bumper sticker taped to the dry wipe board where we record our daily progress (23 and 1/7; whoo!) and one of the last pictures of me upright (which we titled "Belly on ice" ) hanging by the bed. I've attached the picture for your amusement.
Ok, enough for now. we love you all dearly and appreciate your continued good vibes, support and contact. See ya next week!
love, lisa bruno, pedro and archer, + cedric and ursula
ps: my sister-in-law suggested i name my cervix and uterus and talk to them, sort of cheer them on. So it's Cedric the cervix and Ursula Uterus.
We are proud to announce that we have survived two weeks of strict hospital bed rest! The doctors (GD Dr. and Dr. Cuddly) have said i am critical but stable, meaning my cervix is still open so gravity is not currently my friend and i am at much greater risk for infection, but i am not having increased contractions or further dilation, and my membranes are still intact, both of which are good things. Dr. C remains cautiously optimistic and GD Dr. says, "well, you've defied the odds so far..." Again, we are going with Dr. C!
We have three more weeks till we make it to viability (for those of you keeping score at home, Sat is our turn day, so today, Sun July 20th, we are 23 weeks and 1 day). that is the first goal, and we plan to make it way beyond that. And, along those lines, we cant thank you all enough for all the messages of concern, prayers, well wishes, positive inspiration, jokes, stories from your daily life, pictures, stories of other bed rest successes, cards, and good vibes. You guys are keeping these babies healthy just as much as us with all your support. Please know how grateful Bruno and I are from the bottom of our beings.
A bunch of you have asked me what exactly "strict bed rest" means. Let me explain: it means lying flat in bed all the time, with the exception of my bedside commode privileges, for which i may sit up, briefly. I dream of the day i can pee behind a closed door again! How do I eat?, you may ask: lying down! First two culinary lessons for surviving bed rest: 1) stop ordering soup from the hospital menu (disastrous!) and 2) a long bendy straw is your best friend! Lesson three involves strategically placed towels.
"But surely you can sit up to read, or prop yourself up on pillows to watch TV, and how are you writing this now?", I hear you cry! Nope, no sitting, no propping, and here is the visual of me right now: I'm lying on my right side, pillows supporting my head, arm and gigantor belly. The computer is slid into me on an ingenious TV tray bruno purchased from bed bath and beyond, and I'm pecking stuff out with my left hand until my arm runs out of blood, at which point i roll onto my back, shake out my arm and dream of voice activated software. (we are currently investigating those possibilities)
Now let me describe our room: Bruno is nesting, and has so far added to our room (birth suite #5): a drain rack (filled with various dishes borrowed from the hospital plus a wine glass and coffee mug for Bruno; try the imagine my coffee snob of a husband's dismay at the fact that i now sip my morning coffee through a straw out of a plastic hospital cup with a lid!), a coffee grinder, a coffee maker, a toaster, two TV trays (one to hold his laptop, one to hold mine), a hand held blender stick (hence the flax smoothies), a small printer (i'm not kidding, folks) a pantry full of health food, ranging from omega three rich walnuts (omega three's build baby brains!) to the dreaded flax seed and wheat germ to a bar of dark chocolate i know he's got stashed in there somewhere. For decoration, we've been hanging all the cards and poems you glorious people are sending (mounted of course on colorful paper: thanks mom!), fruit basket on top of the TV cabinet, flowers in the windows, balloons on the push pin board, obama '08 bumper sticker taped to the dry wipe board where we record our daily progress (23 and 1/7; whoo!) and one of the last pictures of me upright (which we titled "Belly on ice" ) hanging by the bed. I've attached the picture for your amusement.
Ok, enough for now. we love you all dearly and appreciate your continued good vibes, support and contact. See ya next week!
love, lisa bruno, pedro and archer, + cedric and ursula
ps: my sister-in-law suggested i name my cervix and uterus and talk to them, sort of cheer them on. So it's Cedric the cervix and Ursula Uterus.
| belly-on-snow.jpg 42K View Download |
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